


'It was the [1]4th of July, and you and I were, you and I were, fire, fireworks'

by Forbiddenmichael



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Celebrity Crush, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Fluffy Ending, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Strangers to Lovers, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, celebrity!mcihael, fan!luke, i wrote this a very long time ago but re-wrote it, it tells the story of what happens every 14th of july, its still 5sos just minus luke, luke is a fan, the others are only mentioned sorry, theyre all the same age, this is very cute with zero angst, time jumps
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-12
Updated: 2016-06-12
Packaged: 2018-07-14 14:58:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 5,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7176542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Forbiddenmichael/pseuds/Forbiddenmichael
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yes, Luke thought, roll your eyes. Look, it’s yet another teenager obsessed with a boy band, who they think they will actually meet. It was pathetic, how he put all of his happiness on three boys of his own age who didn’t even know of his existence; he knew it was. But it didn’t stop his face lighting up when the thousandth picture of one of the three boys popped up on his timeline. And it didn’t stop him religiously listening to their music until he was sure the beats of their songs thumped along to the pounding of his heart. A horrible, all-consuming pounding that Luke felt fill ever part of his body, burning through each muscle and bone.</p>
<p>or the story of how a whole year can change so much and what seems impossible might be possible if you just try.<br/>(alternatively the clique story of what everyone wants to happen to them after they give a band member a letter)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Epiloge

**Author's Note:**

> so I wrote this a while ago and again I'm procrastinating revision but not enough to engage my brain and write another part to I know looks can kill. I'm sorry. I finish my exams next Friday so expect lots of updates from then on.
> 
> hope you enjoy this (I split it up bcos why not) and the punny title from the 4th of july by fob
> 
> kudos and comments make my day :)

A piece of paper, slightly dog-eared at the edges, black chicken scratch marking its off white colour. Fold marks and creases littered its otherwise smoothed surface, due to it being folded too many times within a pocket in order to keep it neat. Each spare space of it was sprawled with the slightly smudged back ink; the pen used to write on it too free flowing with the black liquid. A letter, full of admiration and love and a hearts worth of gratification and praise, to a band member. 

Yes, Luke thought, roll your eyes. Look, it’s yet another teenager obsessed with a boy band, who they think they will actually meet. It was pathetic, how he put all of his happiness on three boys of his own age who didn’t even know of his existence; he knew it was. But it didn’t stop his face lighting up when the thousandth picture of one of the three boys popped up on his timeline. And it didn’t stop him religiously listening to their music until he was sure the beats of their songs thumped along to the pounding of his heart. A horrible, all-consuming pounding that Luke felt fill ever part of his body, burning through each muscle and bone. Not that they knew any of this, they were still those innocent boys from across the continent of course. 

Oblivious to how their stupid high pitched giggles (that was mainly Ashton whatever, or maybe Calum when he did that really-quickly-breathing-in thing in between burst of laughter, or even Michael when he would clap his hands together and throw himself forward as the laughter ripped through him) in their interviews- all of which Luke watched without fail- and their ‘in jokes’ which had become jokes just because you weren’t included ‘in’ them, and the way they simply acted around each other, made his heart flip and fall in on itself in a way that could only be described as dangerous. 

Luke’s heart felt like it was squeezing itself, or a hand was gripping it too tightly (probably tattooed with an anchor no doubt), a sound of pure joy- to other people the sound of someone choking- erupting, would seemingly unexpectedly erupt from his throat, his eyes squinted at the edges and his whole body seamed to scrunch up on itself. Yes, all about some stupid boys, in a band that he would never be more than a fan of. 

But that didn’t stop him. The waves of ‘feels’, and ‘ohmigod, I can’t even’s were frequent and welcomed, giving him a feeling of togetherness whenever the feelings were mirrored with another fan. Someone reaching out and letting him know he wasn’t alone in the life gripping, almost unhealthy attachment he felt towards them. That had always been the idea. It was never a fan base, even if now they were growing bigger and the vast quantity of fans was exploding by the minute, it was a family: A collective group of ‘misfits and rejects’ that would accept those even if they weren’t a ‘misfit or reject’ under the solidarity of those who sought after solace within loud guitar and drums and the occasional random keek. 

And it was ridiculous, barbaric even, to solely base his happiness and fulfilment on the shoulders of two twenty year olds and a twenty one year old. It was his 'childhood' or as much of a childhood you could call it when he was nineteen years of age. It was the way that he choose to spend the years when he actually had the chance to choose, bending the time around masses of exams and then the opportunities for other work. Not that he was complaining.


	2. 14th July 2015

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for more than I can ever say, he thought. But that was too awkward, too intimate to share with them, with him. Luke couldn’t just stumble over the fact that he relied so heavily on boys not much older than himself, it was too much, too weird. Then everything went blurry. A sweaty letter shoved into white hands with stubby fingers marked with an anchor.

The letter sat trembling in his sweaty open palms and the white paper quivered and shook with the way that his hands were shaking, his hearts words splashed across the pages. It was almost too scary, how close proximity to something, or someone- currently blocked from view- could reduce him to such a mess. 

So today was the day. The day when he would finally look into the eyes of those three boys which he had craved to see all this time, when he would stare into them and learn their true colour, not the magnified perfection of high quality photos. He wouldn’t see them through the lens of a camera or the screen of a laptop or phone. It was exhilarating, knowing that three people he knew so well were behind a measly plastic whitewashed wall. 

Through some form of magic, 5 Seconds of Summer had decided to do some form of meet and greet at a dinky record store near where he lived. A few people now, a few being a mere five-hundred people due to how much the boys had grown, but compared to the growing 5sosfam, that was small, had turned up to catch a three minute hug with the boys behind the wall. 

The screaming fans were herded like cattle. Funnelled into a run of silver railing, that twisted and snaked in an endless queue. Hard, concrete, grey floor served as makeshift seats as people slumped on the floor and waited, waited for what felt like forever. As each fan meet them, the queue inched forwards. A few girls squealed as they realised that they were next, or the next but one, or the next but two. A huge mass of cheap, fake band merchandise every now and then littered or flecked with an older fan. Older in the way they held themselves with a little more dignity, kept there internal screaming actually internal and composed themselves to refrain from having an emotional break down like the ones around them. 

An older fan like himself, dressed in an old merchandised top, one of the ones that the boys had worn a similar copy of when they were just starting out. But his head was reeling, stomach churning, vision blurring as the thought of a maximum of five minutes in the same room as his idols raced through his head. The feeling of nerves, but excitement, laced with the feeling of being sick trickled though his blood, coursed through his body. 

So he counted. He counted the amount of people in front of him: 10. The amount of girls with badly dyed hair in an attempt to get attention: 34. The amount of girls with more than one piecing: he got up to one hundred before there was a tap on his shoulder.

A smaller girl, bunches in her hair but a scowl on her face, pointed forwards. “Your next” she said with a high pitched voice. She pointed with a stubby little finger to the door. 

Luke regarded it, how the long row of makeshift white plastic wall ran down the length of the store, how the door was stark against the flimsy wall, black with no windows. Two guards flanked the sides of the doors; arms crossed and frowns on their faces as they wondered why on earth all these people could care about some boys who could sing. Like anybody could be bothered to explain the heart wrenching feeling of their closeness to the burley men anyway.

Then he was stepping past them. Between them. And though the black door. Pushing into a room smelling of hair spray, boy’s cologne and sparking with electricity and excitement. 

Multiple flashes of a camera, blinding, well practice smiles and Australian accents filled the room. Making it burst with life in a way only comparable to the way Luke’s heart was splitting open with over developed feeling. Three strong pairs of arms wrapped around him, grounding him, as strong smelling hair tucked into his shoulder, when they squeezed. 

His eyes met chocolaty brown. Then hazel. Then green. Green eyes that seemed to be set ablaze, a flicker burning deep in the back of them, resting longer than expected. He spoke of course, more of a blubbering mess than he would like to admit for a nineteen year old. But when the owner of those green eyes, wrapped strong, bare arms around him, Luke managed to whisper a choked “Thank you” into his pierced ear. 

Thank you for more than I can ever say, he thought. But that was too awkward, too intimate to share with them, with him. Luke couldn’t just stumble over the fact that he relied so heavily on boys not much older than himself, it was too much, too weird. Then everything went blurry. A sweaty letter shoved into white hands with stubby fingers marked with an anchor. 

And then he was out of the room. He was replaced with another blushing, crying girl who was equally as ecstatic to see them. His letter would just be placed underneath the rest of them, later to be left untouched. Strong, cold air filled his lungs as he breathed in, filling his body with something substantial that wasn’t hope for the boys to read it, or longing that one boy in particular would read it. A boy that, like the meaning of his tattoo on his arm, to Luke, symbolised home.

* * * 

Later that night, holed up in the quite of his bunk, Michael un-tucked the letter from the back of his jean pocket. It was creased, bent lightly from when he had moved around and it had moved with the bend of his legs. The letter had been tucked into the back of his pocket since the boy with the swells of emotion filling up his eyes entered the meet and greet room. 

So now when he flicked a short thumbnail underneath the seal of the envelope, breaking the sticky bond, he read the whole letter. Taking in all the words, grateful in the feeling of honesty and the fact it wasn’t a fan professing their love like the rest. The words filled his heart until it felt like it was going to burst, and then filled his eyes with tears. So much emotion and feelings spread over the lined paper it made his chest ache. He read it again and again. Till his eyes were red and sore and sleep overcame him. 

And so the letter read: _“Dear Michael. I could start by telling you how much, you and your best friends mean to me. I could write paragraphs upon paragraphs about how many nights I have stayed up thinking about how it would change my entire life to just see any one of you once._

_And now, if it is you reading this letter, then that has come true, and my life is already changed. Without sounding too sappy and besotted, and then professing my love for you all, in truth I don’t know how I will feel after that pinnacle moment. If I will be ecstatic because I finally go to meet you, or upset as those three minutes will be gone in a flash and I will be left knowing what you are actually like and that’s something I can never have._

_I’ll know the ways your voices actually sound in person, the way your eyes actually look and how the shadows catch them, or the way you sit or stand or lean when not being harassed by producers and such, to stop acting like children._

_In any way, I know for certain, I will be different. I may think that I know you; it may feel like that when I can tell who is speaking through an old live stream without looking, and how I can tell your birthday etc._

_But in reality I don’t know anything. I don’t know which side of the bed you sleep on, or whether the boys are only messing about when they say you snore, I don’t know whether you actually shout at the screen when you play the Xbox or if you like lots of butter on your sandwiches. Saying that, and actually thinking about what I don’t know, reveals that I know very little._

_And I’m okay with that because I know that I’m just some crazy boy with a devotion to three boys, but I know you love each and every one of us. A fan, that’s what I am and I’m proud to say it._

_So if you read this letter, I hope you do, then just know that you have changed my life, made me realise through the pounding of a baseline or the rising intensity of a guitar solo that there is something to hold onto. The music, yes, we will always have that, but let’s hope for a certain, small amount of time we will all have you as well._

_Keep on keeping those dreams alive, from Luke, ( @alwayscliffords on twitter ) xx”_


	3. 14th July 2016

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> @alwayscliffords: malum af 
> 
> _@mikey5sos: Sometimes I forget you’re a fan_
> 
> @alwayscliffords: It’s because I’m a fan that you have been graced with my presence 
> 
> _@mikey5sos: whatever_

_@mikey5sos: I can’t believe I’m finally seeing you tomorrow. I’m so excited!_

@alwayscliffords: I know, how long has it been?? I can finally see you through more than the Skype page thingy!! It feels like it’s been a year since I saw you last??

_@mikey5sos: Yeah, it must have around that. Wasn’t it at that meet and great thingy? The one with the dodgy flimsy walls?_

@alwayscliffords: I think it was actually, and then you friggen stalked me, until you found me!!

_@mikey5sos: I DIDN’T STALK YOU! You left your user name at the end of that letter!_

@alwayscliffords: Oh god that letter. Jeez that was embarrassing ha (as is this user name but I can’t bring myself to change it oops)

_@mikey5sos: It wasn’t embarrassing. It was wonderful… I may or may not have cried…_

@alwayscliffords: YOU CRIED!?!?!

_@mikey5sos: shut up_

@alwayscliffords: MICHAEL I-AM-MACHO-AND-NEVER-CRY CLIFFORD ACTUALLY CRIED OVER A LETTER I WROTE HIM?!?!?

_@mikey5sos: SHUTUP_

@alwayscliffords: We have been speaking basically every day for the last year and you never once told me that you cried

_@mikey5sos: IS IT ANY WONDER WHY WHEN YOU ACT LIKE THIS?!?!_

@alwayscliffords: Okay, okay. I’ll stop…ahhahahaahahha

_@mikey5sos: Bully…_

@alwayscliffords: Um sorry, but Calum!! You bully him all the time!!

_@mikey5sos: Yeah but he deserves it_

@alwayscliffords: malum af 

_@mikey5sos: Sometimes I forget you’re a fan_

@alwayscliffords: It’s because I’m a fan that you have been graced with my presence 

_@mikey5sos: whatever_

@alwayscliffords: YOU KNOW ITS TRUE 

_@mikey5sos: yeah yeah I know Luke, right gtg. Ash is flipping out as I left an empty vegemite jar in the cupboard. Wtf? Someone forgot his hair moose this morning or something. Anyway, see you tomorrow. I’ll be thinking of you._

@alwayscliffords: Well it is annoying Mike. Make sure he doesn’t use Calums’s or he will never get his hair wavy again and it will just be a ball of fluff, but okay. Wow yeah tomorrow. First time of many I hope. Okay ttyl x 

_*@mikey5sos is offline*_

*@alwayscliffords is offline*


	4. 14th July 2017

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Hey, Luke?” Michael asked. His voice muffled by the huge slice of pizza he just managed to stuff in his mouth. 
> 
> “Yeah?” he said, more respectfully after swallowing his own doughy, oily mess. 
> 
> “Is this a date?” now he had scoffed down his mouthful but his voice was still a little more muffled than usual.

“Hey, Luke?” Michael asked. His voice muffled by the huge slice of pizza he just managed to stuff in his mouth. 

“Yeah?” he said, more respectfully after swallowing his own doughy, oily mess. 

“Is this a date?” now he had scoffed down his mouthful but his voice was still a little more muffled than usual. 

“No Michael,” rolling his eyes as he spoke. “This is what we do every Friday so we actually leave the house”. Luke shoved grabbed piece of the oily peperoni pizza, relishing in way there were cheesy strings from his mouth to the piece he was holding. 

And it was true. Every Friday since that awkward, yet undeniably exciting, first meeting at the coffee shop down the road from the pizza parlour they were currently in, the two boys had both made it their ‘thing’ to go to the dingy pizza restaurant close to Luke’s appartment. 

It was some sort of tradition, no matter what was happening they would both make their way to the dark interior-filled pizza place, (well whenever Michael was in the country because if he wasn’t Luke would still go to the pizza place and order takeout to eat in his own apartment whilst on FaceTime to the absent boy instead, they took the tradition very seriously).

With its sticky leather seats that had some sort of residue from god knows what on them, with the low hanging lamps that flickered and made an eerie noise whenever they did, it served the best pizza in town. It was amazing, the cheese always coming in long loops from the bite in their mouths to the bitten piece. A low hum of general electronic appliances and the occasional hum of content from either himself of Michael, as they ate a particularly tasty piece, rung through the place. 

Michael took a swing of his drink, swilling it around his mouth. It trickled down his throat and his slight Adams apple bobbed. He flicked his now much longer hair out of his eyes. “Well can we go on a date?” he was still trying to act coy, and confident but the slight tapping of his finger on the bridge of the glass gave him away. The condensation on it dampened his already sweating palm. He was really nervous. 

Michael may have known Luke for around two years now, but that was when their relationship was strictly platonic. Nothing more than friends, (if they ignored the slight bump of the letter than Michael still kept tucked away in his suitcase to read when the blonde hair boy was too far out of reach). And there had been no hints at the inner screaming from Michael every time the other boys shirt rode up when he stretched, revealing a strip of fair and pale skin he just wanted to litter with kisses. 

“Like…us two? Together?” Luke queried. He hoped, and prayed that his voiced stayed steady and didn’t shake with how apprehensive he was when he spoke. Was Michael actually doing this? For real? After all this time? 

Luke thought back on the two years of pining he had endured over his best friend to get to this point, and he couldn’t help but feel like it was worth it. Yes, it took some restraint to not act upon his urges, yes it was almost painful to watch other girls, and sometimes even more painfully boys, flinging themselves at him, and yes it did feel almost unbearable sometimes when the thumping in his head started when one of Michael’s hands would subconsciously brush over his skin in an attempt to reach for a beer or something similar. 

But it was also elating to feel the swell of pride in his stomach when Michael would push those girls and guys away, in favour of spending time with his best friend, Luke. 

“Yeah?” Michael said, almost whispered. He tried to wipe his palms on his jeans to rid them of the sweat. His answered the question as if he was open to the idea of it not being the two of them, which wasn’t really true. 

“Okay!” he semi-shouted. Only afterwards did Luke think of the way Michael’s face had lit up when he had replied so excitedly. 

“Okay?” Michael quirked his eyebrow, his cocky demeanour back when he mocked the other’s excitable outburst. 

“Shut up.” Luke muttered, looking down into his lap and reaching for another slice of pizza. ‘It took you long enough to ask’ he thought to himself, but didn’t say it out loud.


	5. 14th July 2018

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> His head shot up out of a box, different to the one he had gotten in before. A piece of Styrofoam padding was stuck to his head, the white nestled in his mess of his hair cut of fluorescent green strands. His beaming smile lit up his entire face, and his green eyes twinkled.

“Michael, for God’s sake! Get out of that cardboard box!” Luke shouted as a bright coloured blob ducked down inside of the brown wrapping paper of a box he had just emptied. “What are you? A two year old?” he screeched when his boyfriend didn’t respond or even acknowledge the scolding he was receiving. 

He had been mucking around in the boxes- hiding in them then jumping out at the other boy when he least expected it, pushing holes in the bottom of them and trying to walk with a box for a body, and then trying to fashion one into a hat which he had quickly given up on, leaving the remains all over the floor-since the removals van to their new shared flat had arrived. 

His head shot up out of a box, different to the one he had gotten in before. A piece of Styrofoam padding was stuck to his head, the white nestled in his mess of his hair cut of fluorescent green strands. His beaming smile lit up his entire face, and his green eyes twinkled. 

Luke couldn’t help but let a small smile work its way onto his face when he saw how happy Michael was, the way that his bubbly laughter filled the place that otherwise was only silent apart from rustling of paper and the chink of plates and china. 

“Why am I even dating you?” he said, the light tone in his voice, as he walked from the side of the room to where Michael was still semi submerged in a box. 

He pouted, full lips Luke had felt on his own hundreds of times before, going red and plump. “Because you love me?” he added a ‘w’ to the start of love in his best attempt at a baby voice. 

“Well it’s a good job I do isn’t it.” He sighed happily, before plucking the Styrofoam of his head- to which Michael frowned at- and pecking his pouted lips in a kiss.


	6. 14th July 2019

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Michael stood in front of the mirror, running a hand through his dyed hair. “It’s not very punk rock, is it?” he queried, a slight uncertainty in his voice.

Deep purple hair dye stained Luke’s hands; the remains and evidence of the now light purple haired boy in front of him. The dye faded slightly as it washed down the drain, mixing with the luke-warm water and becoming diluted. 

Michael stood in front of the mirror, running a hand through his dyed hair. “It’s not very punk rock, is it?” he queried, a slight uncertainty in his voice. 

Luke turned to look at him. Taking in his whole face, the way his nose curved downwards the tiniest way, with a little bump at the end. The way his cheeks were slightly rosy and pink against his ghostly pale skin from where he had been tilting his head upside down over the bath tub, blood running to his head, whilst Luke had rubbed the purple, foul smelling dye through his hair. The way his brows were darker then the golden hair of his fluttering eyelashes, and how they furrowed slightly as he inspected his hair. And the way now his deep green eyes, already so bright and almost fluorescent in the semi light of the bathroom, looked even more vivid, off set by the almost white dusty colour of his pastel purple hair. 

“You look beautiful.” Luke mumbled, running his hands lightly across the other’s slightly stubbled jaw from behind, in an attempt to calm the him down. Michael watched Luke with wide eyes through the mirror in front of him. 

Then he pouted, lips nudging Luke’s palm. “I don’t want to look pretty; I want to look punk rock.” His jaw jutted out in defiance, but Luke smoothed over his bottom lip with the pad of his thumb. “My pretty boy.” he whispered before gently kissing along his dark hair splattered jaw line.


	7. 14th July 2020

_5 seconds of summer? More like 9 years of fame_

The Australian boy band, consisting of three members has finally agreed to a mutual break-up of the band, after being shot to success almost ten years ago. After their first sell out world tour back in 2014-15 dubbed the ‘rock out with your socks out’ tour, the boys have climbed the ratings, breaking records and winning many awards. 

The multimillion pound boy band began its humble begins in the garage of a fellow band mate and from there has continued to reach millions of views online and sell gold then platinum records. To say the three boys from Australia really made it would be an understatement, but now after developing a fan base that could even top the formidable ‘One Direction fanbase’, (a still closely knit family since the split of the 1D boys multiple years ago) the 5SOSfam-which they call themselves- may be more prone to listening to the sounds of bands such as All Time Low and Green Day- since the release of ‘She’s Kinda Hot’ in 2015, finally signalling the group as a punk rock band- rather than teen poppy tunes. 

However despite their still increasing fan base and the fact they seem to be ‘taking over the world’, the three boys have decided to call it a day, and have thrown in the towel. It is rumoured that the break up is mostly due to the previous guitarist of the band- Michael Clifford- wanting to settle down and make a family with his new fiancé Luke Hemmings. 

Their relationship has blossomed ever since Luke, a budding fan at the time, met his future spouse at a meet and greet in his home town. The wedding is rumoured sometime around July next year, but a huge public ceremony is said to not be on the way. We congratulate the newlyweds but will terribly miss the boys’ new found glory in the rock industry.


	8. 14th July 2021

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A date-the 14th of July- engraved on the underside so that it pressed against his skin, reminding them both of so many different 14th of July’s.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> http://longsjewelers.tplsandbox.com/uploads/1-Armadani13098_R00562-diamond-eternity-ring.jpg  
> ^this is Luke's engagement ring 
> 
> https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/36/26/cb/3626cb82aa4f5baeafff86699ccb4892.jpg  
> ^this is the wedding bands that they have

The silver band of Luke’s engagement ring shone brightly, glinting and winking at him and the small diamonds encasing the whole thing shone even brighter, blinding almost, in the sun. Sun of which had bronzed his skin, but left Michael’s red with sun burn. 

A slightly duller and thicker band was next to the winking one. A date-the 14th of July- engraved on the underside so that it pressed against his skin, reminding them both of so many different 14th of July’s. It was a wedding band mirrored on Michael’s other hand too. 

Both rings were slight on Luke’s finger, still new and dirt free. A tan line was underneath them, paler skin trapped beneath the metal. The honeymoon had tanned his skin, leaving it glowing and at the peak of health, his skin glowing like the glowing happiness in his heart. 

The wedding was wonderful. No other way to describe it, soft songs had been played up until after the first dance- Michael’s hands had held him so lovingly, the ridges and calluses of them framing Luke’s body, his black suit contrasting with Luke’s white one- as they’d danced slowly, to an acoustic of their first self-titled album. 

It was a family affair, his and Luke’s. So obviously the other boys had come, growing old now that the need to always be camera ready had dwindled. Having two best men was a necessity to Michael, when he finally committed himself completely to Luke, and Luke didn’t particularity mind having his childhood band all present as more than just a ‘wedding entertainment’ at his wedding. But Michael wouldn’t do it with his two best friends and essentially brothers at his side. And to say that tears didn’t slip from their eyes would be a lie. 

And Luke, became Luke Hemmings-Clifford and he had never thought his heart could feel more full of love for a boy he had fallen for at eighteen.


	9. 14th July 2022

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Michael was singing, softly, sweetly. A lowered rendition of ‘Amnesia’, a song that after so many years still brought tears to Luke’s eyes as it dug up so many memories of pining nights over Michael, when he wasn’t his own, wasn’t his boyfriend, or fiancé, or husband.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am slowly killing myself with this

At almost four months old, the tiny baby wailed insistently. It was a girl. Daddy’s little princess and Papa’s little angel. But she cried and cried. A non-stop screamer- for attention and affection, of which she was always given willingly by either a tired looking Luke, or a bleary-eyed Michael. So when, in the middle of the night, the wailing started up again, it was Luke’s automatic reaction to roll from the bed towards the small child. 

Stumbling down the hall to the pink dusted nursery, he stopped immediately. Even in his sleep deprived state, Luke couldn’t help the building love and admiration for the man standing cradling their adopted baby in his arms.

Michael was singing, softly, sweetly. A lowered rendition of ‘Amnesia’, a song that after so many years still brought tears to Luke’s eyes as it dug up so many memories of pining nights over Michael, when he wasn’t his own, wasn’t his boyfriend, or fiancé, or husband. 

His soothing tone and hushed whispers, along with the swipes of his thumb along the little tufts of baby hair- the same colour of Michael’s natural hair- soothed the child. Quietening her screams and his rocking lulled her into a sleep. But still Michael continued to rock her, whilst pacing slightly, cooing words of love and devotion at her. 

As Luke stood in the door way watching the man he loved, comforting and cradling their baby in his arms, Michael didn’t even see him. Too engrossed in protecting and fulfilling the need of the the tiny life in his hands. 

The love for Michael pumped through his veins, sparking in his brain and heart, highlight his vision. Almost like a drug as it coursed through him and mixed with his blood. It tingled through ever limb of Luke’s body and made him feel lightheaded. A drug, too powerful and addictive to ever have been tried in the first place, but too fulfilling, eye-opening and wonderful, to ever, ever give up.


	10. 14th July 2032

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A simple teenager can fall in love with a band member in an instant. Sure anyone can. And sometimes, it only takes a split second for that band member to love them right back.

Surrounded by children and relatives alike, Luke smiled, beamed even. Over the years, his and Michael’s children- a girl and two boys- had branched out. Had their own families and started their own lives. So now all around him were the results of the burning feeling in his chest; _love_ , that he had for Michael. 

Both of them were not now at the pinnacle of health, greying hairs and groaning joints were present and there were new, younger spectacles of love around them. But as, hand in hand, he and Michael studied the screams of “Oh Grandpa Luke!” and “Tell me about the band you were in!” Luke couldn’t help but think about that letter. 

How a few splashes of ink could lead to something that neither of them could explain, something that Luke didn’t need to explain to anyone else. It was felt in the way the cool metal of his wedding ringing digging into the now frail skin of his brittle hands. Or the way a tiny little pin-prick was visible just above Michael’s grey haired eyebrows from a metal bar that was no longer there. Or in the way Luke’s hair was still long but a whitey grey colour. It was a time line. A timeline of how long a love so ferocious can last and how it won’t be put down by the specs of water that are splashed on it.

A simple teenager can fall in love with a band member in an instant. Sure anyone can. And sometimes, it only takes a split second for that band member to love them right back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay I'm done, if anyone wants to come sob with me ill be over on twitter at @chess_polley 
> 
> WHY CANT THIS BE MY LIFE LUKE LET ME BE YOU


End file.
